The Genesis Virtua Racing is a unique port of the classic racing game using a chip known as the Sega Virtua Processor, which makes polygon drawing plausible on the humble Genesis. Unfortunately, just eight months later Sega released an enhanced version for the 32X, an add-on which was far better than what the SVP had to offer. As a result, no other game uses said chip, though prototypes of a handful of 32X games indicate they were going to. The chip is also notoriously incompatible with the 32X and a slimmed-down model marketed by Majesco.
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Debug Mode#
Watch on YouTubeIn any part of the game that gameplay is shown, setting RAM address 0xFFD86D to 0 (it's normally set to 1 at the start of a game mode) will enable the game's debug mode. All opponents will be halted and debugging info will be shown at the top.
SVP Test Mode#
Hold A, B, C, Start, and all four directions on the D-Pad on controller 1 when powering on the console and the game will boot into a test mode. Alternatively, use Game Genie code REAT-E61A or Pro Action Replay code 0201E0:4E71. If the game does not detect the SVP chip, it will spit out a communication error. Otherwise, it will check the integrity of the SVP and make sure everything is working. Pressing Reset will then display the game's region lockout screen regardless of the console's region.
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No SVP Chip Detected |
SVP Chip Detected |
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(Source: Nemesis (Discovery), jdesiloniz (Button combo)
Unused Graphics#
The font used in the SVP test mode contains many additional characters which are never shown.
(Source: Original TCRF research)
References#
- ソフトウェア一覧（セガ発売） | メガドライブ ｜セガ SEGA↩︎
- CES Showstoppers - GamePro, Volume 6, Number 4, April 1994↩︎
- Review: Virtua Racing - Hyper, Issue 4, March 1994↩︎
- Agosto traz novidades para videogames "August brings videogame news" - O Estado de S. Paulo, August 1, 1994↩︎
- Future Zone ad - Daily Express, May 27, 1994↩︎
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The Virtua Racing series | |
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Arcade |
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Genesis |
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32X |
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Sega Saturn |
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PlayStation 2 |
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